74 Toggle J oes were temporary victims of circumstances, and I got on with fighting the war and trying to sur- vive," W ulf says. I N mid-January, 1944, after Bob Allred left Topeka to go overseas, Juanita drove Mollie and Henry's car to Des Moines. Helen Bauder, Doris Holm, and Paul Harvey's wife, Betty, kept her company as far as Omaha, where the Bauders lived. Doris had met Keith while he was stationed in Everett, Washington, her home town, and she was going to stay with his parents in Kimball, Nebraska, his home town. Betty Harvey was from Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Her parents owned a jewelry store there, and she was planning to work for them. After dropping off her three passengers (Doris and Betty took trains to Kim- ball and Scottsbluff from Omaha), Juanita drove on to Des Moines. It was the first time she had been alone on a highway, and she felt as fright- ened as she had when she took her first solitary train ride to San Antonio, in September, 1942. Since then, Juanita's life had been disrupted by Bob's frequent changes of station, but it was only now, when he was heading over- seas, that she realized what it meant to be a pilot's wife. There was a war on; no one expected the war to end for another year or two; she wouldn't be seeing Bob anytime soon. Still, many women she knew were in similar situ- ations or worse. Emily's husband, Carl, was a Seabee, shifting from one island to another in the South Pacific. Bill, the husband of Emily's daughter Dorothy, was also in the Navy, on a ship in the South Pacific. The husband of Emily's daughter Margaret had been a B-17 navigator, had been shot down over Schweinfurt, Germany, on August 17, 1943, and was in a prison camp on the Oder River. When Juan- ita returned to Des Moines in Jan- uary, 1944, Emily was sharing her house with her youngest daughter, Betty, and with Dorothy, Margaret, and Margaret's newborn baby. Juanita went back to work for Judge Meyer, rented out the house on Diehl Avenue, and moved in with her parents. On the morning of Saturday, April 1, 1944, there was a knock on the door of the St.Johns' house. Monte St. John and Juanita were at work in the courthouse. When Jessie St.John opened the door, she saw a boyish- looking Western Union messenger on the front porch. He was holding a two-star telegram addressed to Mrs. Juanita Allred. Messengers were for- bidden to leave two-star telegrams in people's mailboxes (the two stars stamped on them by Western Union signified that they dealt with an emer- gency or a death), and were instructed to hand them only to the addressees, after warning them of the nature of their contents. Jessie St. John talked the inexperienced messenger into giv- ing her the telegram. As soon as he had left, she opened it and read: THE SECRETARY OF WAR DESIRES ME TO EXPRESS HIS DEEP REGRET THAT YOUR HUS- BAND SECOND LIEUTENANT ROBERT E ALL- RED HAS BEEN REPORTED MISSING SINCE TWENTY-TWO MARCH OVER NEW GUINEA PERIOD LETTER FOLLOWS Mrs. St.John telephoned her hus- band, in the auditor's office, and read him the telegram, which was signed by an Acting Adjutant General. Monte St.John worked on the second floor of the courthouse, Juanita on the fourth. He walked up the two flights of stairs, broke the news to her, and said he would take her home. On the way, they stopped at the Allreds' house. Mollie had an everything-will- turn-out-all-right attitude about life -her children believe that it helped her survive her early married years- and Bob had been in and out of scrapes most of his life. He had always landed on his feet, Mollie assured Juanita, and he would on this occasion, too. Juanita was shocked and puzzled. The last letter she had received from Bob had been written on March 17th. He wasn't even flying combat missions then-he was training Australians. She had the home addresses and tele- phone numbers of the families of the nine men in Bob's crew and the work phone numbers of some of the married men's wives. She called Trena Camp- bell at work, in Port Hueneme, Cali- fornia, and read her the telegram. Trena hadn't received one. She ran home and found a letter from John MAY 26, 1986 telling her that Bob and Keith were . . mIssIng. A week later, the letter heralded by the telegram followed: The term "missing" is used only to indi- cate that the whereabouts or status of an individual is not immediately known. It is not intended to convey the impression that the case is closed.... Experience has shown that many persons reported missing are subsequently reported as returned to duty or being hospitalized for inju- ries. . . . I will again communicate with you at the expiration of three months. The letter held out hope, but it was vague, and three months was a long time. Juanita wrote to the Adjutant General's Office to request additional information. Her letter was forwarded to the commanding officer of the 22nd Bomb Group's 19th Squadron at Nadzab. In early June, the C.O. an- swered Juanita's letter. Nothing what- ever was known of the plane after takeoff, and an intensive search for it had been fruitless; and after he spelled out some of the hazards of flying in New Guinea she almost wished she had settled for hopeful vagueness: It is necessary to cross high mountain ranges on practically every flight made on the island. Thick jungle growth goes right up to the tops of the peaks and entire squadrons could completely disappear un- der this foliage. No matter hO\\T thorough the search is, the possibility of locating the plane is rather remote. We have had nu- merous other instances of like nature and no word has come concerning those crews or airplanes. The weather and terrain ac- count for more airplanes than combat fly- Ing. In July, Juanita received a letter telling her that Bob's plane hadn't been seen or heard from "after it left its base, at 2:35 P.M.," and enclosed with the letter was a list of the twenty- one men who were on the plane and the names and addresses of their next of kin. Juanita, an optimist by nature, still hoped that good news would be forthcoming before the Office of the Adjutant General dispatched its next form letter, three months hence. All through 1944, she worked six days a week; taught Sunday school, as she had been doing since 1935; continued to join in Allred family gatherings; and remained an active member of Beta Nu, a businesswomen's sorority she had pledged in 1936. The sorority had dinner parties, theatre parties, slumber parties, and formal and infor- mal dances. Evening meetings with refreshments and games were held in members' homes. In 1944, Juanita and a girl friend whose husband was in the military saved up and took a trip to